Table format data presenting method, inserting method, deleting method, and updating method

Abstract

A method to perform the insertion, deletion and updating of data in table-format data quickly and appropriately. A CPU 12 accepts a record number as a subscript, generates a subscript conversion array for giving an offset value corresponding to the range of the subscript in question, identifies the insertion position which indicates the position of the field value to be inserted, and, in the subscript conversion array, gives an offset value that defines the range of the corresponding subscript and also identifies the end of the array, and in the subscript conversion array, gives an offset value that increments the corresponding range of subscripts and also decrements the accepted subscript, and places the field value to be inserted at the stipulated end position, such that an offset value according to the range of subscripts within the subscript conversion array is given as the subscript.

Description

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION[0001]1. Field of the Invention[0002]The invention relates to a data processing method and data processing apparatus for processing large amounts of data using a computer or other information processing apparatus, and particularly to the updating, deleting, inserting and transaction processing of table-format data that constitutes a database.[0003]2. Description of the Prior Art[0004]Databases are used for various applications, but the use of a relational database (RDB) which is able to eliminate logical contradictions has become the mainstream in medium-to large-scale systems. For example, an RDB may be used in an airline seat reservation system or the like. In this case, a key field may be specified to perform a quick search for targets (often a single target), or to confirm, cancel or change reservations.[0005]However, in recent years, there has been a conspicuous trend for databases to be used not only for applications involving the simple management o...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0062]This involves forming an information block containing a fourth actual array in which the record numbers themselves are pl

Problems solved by technology

However, with a conventional RDB, local memory is used to commit a transaction and confirm its content, so despite being suited to mission-critical work based mainly on transaction processing, it is not suited to the analysis of large-scale data (information-based work) from a structural standpoint.

Moreover, this limitation (time=n*log(n)) appears not only in sorting but also in all general operations such as the extraction of partial sets (=searching).

However, it is not possible to create bitmaps for each value at all times. For example, in the case of a field (e.g. an ID number) that has one billion different values in a database of one billion records, it would be necessary to create one billion bitmaps, each of a size of one billion bits (approximately 125 MB).

In addition, this method clearly cannot be applied instantly to partial sets, and it cannot be used in cases in which records are frequently inserted or deleted.

Other techniques of increasing speed similarly have some kind of limitation.

Because of such limitations in the applicable scope of these various technologies for increasing speed, operations that may appear to the user to be completely identical may be completed instantaneously or may take hours, so a serious problem of extreme discontinuity in processing time (difficulty of prediction) occurs.

It need not be said that the number of hits cannot be known prior to executing the search, so even if a function were known for the correspondence between the number of hits and the time required for a search, the time required cannot be predicted accurately.

Such instability in performance is fatal particularly for real-time control systems.

For example, large-scale, complex electrical power supply control systems wherein a plurality of power plants are connected to an extremely large number of electrical power customers via a power line

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